Heavily invested in gaming

Channel Post speaks with Raghav Koorichh, Consumer Category & Brand Manager – UAE, Gulf & SELL at Dell about their wide range of gaming products and the innovations that the company has brought to its portfolio for a seamless gaming experience.

Raghav Koorichh, Consumer Category & Brand Manager – UAE, Gulf & SELL at Dell

Market reports suggest a rapidly growing gaming market in the Middle East. How significant is the gaming segment to your overall business in the region and why?

This region continues to be a strong market for PC gamers with high-end desktop PCs and gaming laptops being the strongest in the gaming hardware segment. The gaming revenue of Saudi Arabia was recently estimated by Statista to be approximately USD 647 million, followed by the UAE with gaming revenue of about USD 281 million.

The regional gaming segment is a major focus for Dell and our Alienware division and Inspiron Gaming series have proven to be popular among gamers. There is definitely a market of huge opportunity in the region as gaming continues to be at an all-time high driven by the passion of youth.

How is gaming evolving in the region and which countries are contributing to growth in this segment?

The demand for gaming PCs is growing in the entry-to mid-level segment while PC gaming accessories offer an additional revenue opportunity of over USD 47 million in the MEA region. Driven by high level connectivity and accessibility to homegrown and international gaming tournaments, consumers are embracing the possibilities that games now offer, to view, create and play on every screen. This reflects the rising trajectory of the gaming space in the region.

Middle East is one of the biggest and fastest growing markets worldwide and has been an impressive test-bed for gaming development. The MEA region enjoys a hefty population of online gamers – 587 million in 2017 according to a report by Newzoo and is growing at a 25% year-over-year growth rate, ahead of other fast growing markets such as Latin America and APAC. The top three countries leading this growth are Egypt, UAE, and Saudi Arabia.

What products drive your gaming business in the Middle East? How is Dell differentiating the Alienware portfolio from Dell gaming products?

Our Alienware family and Inspiron Gaming are driving our gaming business across the region. As a leader in the gaming industry for more than 20 years with the Alienware brand, Dell has leveraged its deep understanding of PC gaming, to increase its offerings to gamers with the Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming laptops.

Alienware products represent cutting-edge technology, commercial-grade build, durability, premium materials, and iconic design with lighting effects and more – however we recognize that not all who play PC games can afford or want to invest in an Alienware premium system. While Alienware is a critical part of our consumer line up, we also believe the market is primed for our new Inspiron Gaming line adding more modestly priced gaming systems to the Dell portfolio.

What are the latest innovations that you have introduced in your gaming portfolio?

Dell gaming machines are engineered with the specific, demanding needs of the gaming audience in mind. From the fastest processors to powerful discrete graphics cards, they make every experience more intense and real.

The new Inspiron 15 5000 Gaming is a powerful gaming laptop tailored to the needs of enthusiasts. The device sports an anti-glare FHD display with True Color delivering incredible clarity and immersive gameplay.

The Dell Inspiron 5577 will be available with all major retailers in the region from the 26th of December. This new Inspiron 15-inch gaming laptop comes equipped with high-performance graphics. It flaunts a heavy duty muscle featuring a professional-grade cooling system with dual fans, oversized pipes and heat exchangers which keep the laptop cool and responsive for uninterrupted gameplay.

More than just premium gaming systems, the new Alienware 13, 15 and 17 gaming laptops represent cutting-edge engineering, which includes an optional OLED screen and VR capabilities, wrapped in a slimmer, all-new iconic design. This intelligent portfolio flaunts the best implementation of Tobii Eye Tracking software – eye-tracking technology that anticipates a gamer’s action based on their attention and presence, without their hands ever leaving the keyboard. This laptop series also offers new NVIDIA graphics, SSD technology and optional 99WHr batteries on the Alienware 15 and 17 laptops, delivering up to ten or more hours of battery life. The Alienware 17 was awarded in the gaming category at CES 2017.

What can gamers expect from Dell going forward and what key elements do your products have, to enable the best gaming experience?

Dell is raising the bar in what gamers can and should expect in their gaming laptops. For gamers, getting further into the game, and making every experience immersive, is a priority. Likewise, the passion of our gaming audience for Alienware and Inspiron Gaming series equally feeds our drive to deliver bleeding-edge innovation, design and performance.

We have amplified the gaming experience with essential design elements incorporated into Alienware gaming keyboards including a dedicated volume roller, onboard memory, and zone-based RGB backlit lighting. We added a new level of intelligence to the keyboard where onboard memory allows for the gamer to assign key combinations via creating macro commands, which ultimately increase efficiency and save time to help the user command and conquer. An N-key rollover feature allows each key to be scanned completely independently by the keyboard hardware, so that each keypress is correctly detected regardless of how many other keys are being pressed at once. Further personalizing the gaming experience, customers can also configure their laptop to rely on a 68-watt-hour or a 99-watt-hour battery, the highest legal limit watt-hour battery –capable of producing up to 11 hours of battery life.

Considering that VR is catching the fancy of gamers, what new initiatives is Dell taking in VR space?

Dell has been in the virtual reality technology space for years, and currently is the only solution provider able to engage customers with an end-to-end VR solution with our Alienware –and now Inspiron – lines, all focusing heavily on embracing the emerging technology. Presently, customers are using VR devices for gaming, entertainment and commercial applications. Hence Dell is taking the intelligence gained in VR from gaming and home entertainment, and implementing VR for commercial agility, cost savings and new ways of learning and gamification. That’s why we’re investing heavily in innovation towards content creation and content consumption.

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